Fascism - Essay Example

Fascism

Fascism in short is all about dictatorial powers that suppresses opposition in its leadership and advocates for control over the economic, political and even social lives of the people (Passmore, 17). This is not a new term and occurrence in history of the world with the likes of Hitler being among the most notable figure. There have also been others in the Middle East and African nations for example where fascism has outright suppressed nationalism in these countries and has put to a complete end democracy.

People however tend to focus more on the negative aspects of fascism and forget that beyond all that control and suppression, fascism makes a country unified in one leadership. There are no challenges to the government that ends up leading to ethnic and even racial division among the people. The individuals under the fascism have to obey and follow the rule of law making some of the processes in government quicker, lack bureaucracy and opposition that tends to cause more rift than aid in harmonizing and keeping checks and balances.

A laisserz fair or even a democratic government sometimes causes the rise of more anarchy than in an authoritarian government according to research (Passmore, 78). This is why sometimes the economy of nations run by fascist leaders prospers more than those run by democratic leader. People do not question the decisions and hence drag the economy through the political process. This is true for nations such as Libya when it was under the dictatorial leadership of the former president Muamar Gadaffi, compared to how it is currently after his murder for being a dictator. Fascism is therefore a two-sided coin depending on which side one prefers to examine it from.

There are several characteristics that fascists often hold and especially when in leadership position. This has been evidenced in fascist leaders of the world such as Hitler and Mussolini of Italy. One of the most common of these characteristics is the supremacy of the military, control of the mass media, they fail to recognize human rights including right to affordable health care, protection of the corporate power while at the same time suppressing the labor power. There are also cases of cronyism, an obsession with national security, crime and even punishment.

These are without doubt characteristics that Americans have started witnessing with President Trump. His obsession with the military for example has led him to surround himself with military generals from his chief of staff. It is also this obsession and that of national security that has made him increase the number of troops in Afghanistan, start a war with North Korea over threats to throw nuclear bomb in America and even start chasing away Muslims from America for fear (Passmore, 116).

He fears that the Muslims will one day overpower the government and cause trouble in his leadership. This is despite the fact that majority of the individuals seeking to be deported are legally American citizens, others through birth and hence they are Americans just like him. The increase in military strength is fear over his country being attacked by enemies or others becoming stronger than America. This may seem like a way of protecting the people, but in reality, he is brainwashing them into overlooking these as traits of an authoritarian leader, which he is indeed turning into, the more he stays in the presidency position.

A look into the leadership of Trump to date shows traces that he is turning into a fascist. He has been very vocal on social media and specifically Twitter with his support and even promotion of anti-Muslims videos and slogans among others. He has also openly been in support of the heinous acts of the Ku-Klux Klan in Charlottesville, something that has slowly been angering the Americans (Heim, 2017). One of the characteristics mentioned above of a fascist leader is that he favors corporate over labor workers. This is what has been happening of late in the nation over the tax reforms that will ultimately benefit the rich, who are also his cronies in the business world over the common man in the labor force.

President Trump is not a true a true fascist in the essence of the definition and in comparison with others in history but he is showing those tendencies. According to Thrush, Glenn & Maggie Haberman (2017), he fails to consider the larger crowd as his decisions are solely focused on what makes him right and what he believes in. This is evident in the bid to end Obama Care that has been helping millions of Americans get affordable health care, something that was nearly impossible before this policy. Health insurance is not cheap in America and hence many people cannot afford it based on their earnings except those in the upper economic class. His curtailing of this program is simply out of ignorance over the rest of the population, which is a huge indicator of a fascist. They only think about themselves and the few others like themselves, but not the rest of the people or even their opinion matters to them.

As mentioned in the introduction, there are two sides of fascism depending on what wants to look at. There is the negative side that have been discussed in detail above, and the other side. In Trump’s case for example, his curtailing of the Obama care program that will result to people going back to paying more health care as before may not be his intention. He has been rich almost all his life and hence cannot understand how the other 99% of the population lives like or even hustles with basic needs (Mitrovica 2017).

All he sees is how cutting back on the program will free up money for other things such as the huge defense budget of $700 million that was passed by Senate. This therefore means that while people will judge Trump on his decisions, he will continue being ignorant of them as he cannot relate to them (Wolffe 2017). On the tax bill for example, the fact that it favors the corporate and the rich and not the common man cannot be understood by him. He is one of the corporate and has surrounded himself with the same throughout his life. He cannot therefore understand why people would find it a huge issue.

This is the reason that even with people complaining about his decision; he continues to simply push for them to be passed. He sees his authoritarianism as simply an issue of making America great in the eyes of others. He forgets that the people that he is supposed to make America great for as suffering from his decisions. This may be seen in another light as myopic view of fascism but it is the reality of these leaders (Griffin 98).

The reason that people notice fascist leaders (and especially in a country like the US at this time) is because they have been having democratic leaders, or those that mind the affairs and opinion of the people, respect them and adopt them. President Obama for example was democratic and had lived the life of a common laborer before becoming a president. This made him easy to relate to their life, problems and challenges better and hence becoming democratic compared to President Trump.

This is the reason that people should not really be quick to judge and condemn fascist leaders before getting to learn their story, their motivation and the reason behind their fascism. Unless the reasons are completely biased, it is easy to turn fascist and reduce it with time among leaders. All that is needed is to show them the other side of the coin, to see what their authoritarian leadership does to the common man for them to consider changes.

A leader can apply aspects of authority and even dictatorship in the leadership when absolutely necessary but not make it a daily habit (Griffin, 56). Such necessary situations include when fighting a common enemy bend on causing havoc and destruction such as terrorism, but not at the expense of hurting and harming the same people that one is supposed to be leading and protecting. The two sides of fascism need to be frequently mentioned and discussed when holding discussions about this topic. Fascism on the extreme end is however bad and should not be tolerated.